To TimAndHedy and everyone else waiting for information on GPU:

You're right, we do like to keep things under wraps. We do that to give us some flexibility in managing our schedule. GPU is not the only new project that we are working on.

We gave the HCC researchers permission to mention that we are working on GPU knowing that it would let the cat out of the bag. So at least you have some information.

But now you're going to have to wait for us to finish the associated prep work.

We will never announce a start date unless we are sure that we can make the date that we announce.

At this time we are not prepared to give you a date for the start of GPU for HCC but we can tell you this:

1. At this time, the plan is to start Beta testing before the end of January, 2012. This may change as conditions arise.

2. Because of the large variety of processors, we will probably have a longer than average Beta test.

Thanks.

At last!!!!!

Finally excellent news.
Kudos to the WCG tech team and the HCC team.

Hope the GTX 580 of Nvidia will be part of the qualified boards. I have a few ready to go.

2012 will be a major milestone in WCG history.

Do not forget on the same time also to add a few new badges.

I would not recommend that at all.
All machines todays have in a form or another GPU's embedded or as an additional board. What is important is to ensure a wide enough compatibility with the boards on the market from Nvidia and AMD. Even the smaller entry level GPU's have today a sizeable crunching power that shoudl be used.

There is the same variety of GPU's in term of crunching power as you have today already with CPU's.
We do not keep different stats between the cruncher that does 1'000 ppd and the one that does 1 Million ppd, or the company that allows to crunch on 1'000 machines and the individual that contributes an older Pentium CPU.
All efforts are welcome from the smallest to the largest without discrimination. There cannot be a value difference between GPU points and CPU points. If technology allows for more work to be done then it is all the better for the cause and we must do everything to encourage it and not bash it by penalizing it.
The issue is not points but work done, WU returned. Yes those using a GPU will generate a lot more points, but a little more in terms of runtime as the GPU will add as one additional CPU over 24 hours at max.

And do not forget that those who add a GPU to their CPU, they do contribute also more as the most powerful boards do consume up to an additional 150-200 watts depending on load.

And clearly GPU based WCG projects will be able to address a much larger amount of work in the same timeframe.

Thank You for the response. I do appreciated it and it will help me to focus a bit more on the video card than I would have.

In reality the secrecy buys you nothing and it distorts decisions of everyone else. People will understand when things change especially when you tell them why.
What is frustrating is lack of transparency. You work in a giant bureaucracy, I am sure you have experienced it.

I am not looking for exact dates. Just general outlines of the direction.

Agreed. Just crunch the numbers, folks!